[81alum]

In addition to everything else that has been said, I do think the poor officiating hurt us badly in this game.  Ideally we would have played well enough to win in spite of it, but it was a lot to overcome. 

1. On the pass to Dres Anderson for the 51 yard TD, Anderson simply shoved our defender out of the way, in obvious sight of the official, who did not call offensive pass interference.  That was a 7 point non-call.

2. The reason the bubble screens were so effective was that Utah was holding on virtually all of them, many of them blatant.

3. The roughing the passer call on Ben Gardner was at least a 4 point penalty.

4. The non-whistle on forward progress that cost us a fumble.

Were there calls or non calls that favored Stanford?  Perhaps, but these were very significant penalties that really changed the character of the game.

All that said, other teams now know how to beat our defense.  They are using the same techniques as Arizona last year and UCLA in the PAC 12 championship.  In fact, Utah was running virtually the same offense as UCLA ran in the championship.  Force our front seven to run sideline to sideline and then when they are conditioned into lateral movement, send the runner up the middle.  We must fix this. 

And despite everything, our offense was stagnant and our playcalling suspect.  Hogan telegraphs way too much.  Other teams also are doing a good job limiting his running. 

Neuheisel said something after the game that sounded interesting to me.  He said the loss of Ertz and Toilolo hurt our power running more than our pass receiving.  Until the TEs become credible receiving threats the power running will suffer.  Not sure I understood the reason for that, but it was an interesting theory.   

UCLA absolutely will do exactly what Utah did offensively-since Utah copied it from them.  We have one week. 

[81alum]

In addition to everything else that has been said, I do think the poor officiating hurt us badly in this game.  Ideally we would have played well enough to win in spite of it, but it was a lot to overcome. 

1. On the pass to Dres Anderson for the 51 yard TD, Anderson simply shoved our defender out of the way, in obvious sight of the official, who did not call offensive pass interference.  That was a 7 point non-call.

2. The reason the bubble screens were so effective was that Utah was holding on virtually all of them, many of them blatant.

3. The roughing the passer call on Ben Gardner was at least a 4 point penalty.

4. The non-whistle on forward progress that cost us a fumble.

Were there calls or non calls that favored Stanford?  Perhaps, but these were very significant penalties that really changed the character of the game.

All that said, other teams now know how to beat our defense.  They are using the same techniques as Arizona last year and UCLA in the PAC 12 championship.  In fact, Utah was running virtually the same offense as UCLA ran in the championship.  Force our front seven to run sideline to sideline and then when they are conditioned into lateral movement, send the runner up the middle.  We must fix this. 

And despite everything, our offense was stagnant and our playcalling suspect.  Hogan telegraphs way too much.  Other teams also are doing a good job limiting his running. 

Neuheisel said something after the game that sounded interesting to me.  He said the loss of Ertz and Toilolo hurt our power running more than our pass receiving.  Until the TEs become credible receiving threats the power running will suffer.  Not sure I understood the reason for that, but it was an interesting theory.   

UCLA absolutely will do exactly what Utah did offensively-since Utah copied it from them.  We have one week.